CABINET FINALLY WALKING THE TALK

It has always been the standing principle of this column to criticise where and whenever appropriate but also give credit where it is due.

It is just a pity that emaSwati have been so disappointed by some policies of the Tinkhundla administration and poor service delivery that they no longer see anything worthy of praise.
In fact, anyone who points out anything positive from government is ridiculed and sometimes insulted. This is the obtaining situation particularly on social media platforms. The common catchphrase is that one is praising government because he or she wants to be recognised as a patriot and given a well-paying position. However, facts will always remain facts.
In recent weeks, the determination of the Russell Dlamini-led Cabinet to do what they were appointed for has been clear.

We still await a permanent return to fully stocked up shelves in government hospital medicine dispensaries but in the meantime, there are some developments worth celebrating.
This past week alone, several ministers either made important announcements or launched worthwhile projects and programmes, mostly aimed at poverty alleviation. This was a consolation, taking into account the fact that we were coming from a week where a report from the office of the Deputy Prime Minister (DPM), tabled in Parliament, highlighted that 58.9 per cent of the population lives in poverty and 20 per cent in extreme poverty. I was particularly impressed with the Family Business idea.

Manqoba Khumalo, Minister of Commerce, Industry and Trade told stakeholders at Inaugural Family Summit held at the Happy Valley Resort, that government was ready to support family businesses, for them to blossom and contribute to the country’s economic growth. “Government is committed to supporting every effort made in this direction,” said the minister, adding that they had established policies and financial opportunities aimed at facilitating this progression. He said they were on a mission to disprove the notion that government only supported and prioritised foreign direct investment, as opposed to indigenous entities.

Indeed, just as Khumalo said, many of the globally renowned brands have their origins as family businesses. Some are still family owned to this day. I did a bit of research on this aspect and surprised myself with interesting facts. Before this, I did not know that the iconic Nike footwear brand was owned by the Knight family of America; that BMW was owned by the Quandt family of Germany; Dell Technologies which deals in computers and related stuff is owned by the Dell family of America and that the LG Corporation, famous for television sets, microwave ovens and other electronic appliances is owned by the Koo family of South Korea.

I was not aware that the renowned and revered Porsche cars are produced by a conglomerate owned by the Porsche-Piech family of Germany and that Lóreal, famous for women’s beauty products, is owned by the Bettencourt-Meyers family of France. Tata Motors of India is owned by the Tata family.

Designing

These may sound like big brands but they all started small.  In nearby South Africa, Theo Baloyi, a relatively young black man owns a multimillion Rand brand known as Bathu Shoes.
He started off designing sneakers in his mother’s humble house in one of the dusty townships of Soweto. I am bringing this up because someone reading this might say we have listed big brands that emaSwati can never compete with, let alone beat. If you start small and be passionate; you will see your business grow from strength to strength. These are exciting times in Eswatini and one hopes that many families will come together to take advantage of the ‘policies and financial opportunities’ government has put in place for this initiative to take off.
If the Family Business programme has the same impact as the Regional Development Fund (RDF), good things will be witnessed in our country.

For more than 10 years, government has promoted rural and regional development through the RDF, which operates through tinkhundla centres. For just this year alone, government allocated E177 million  to boost the RDF, which has helped various communities to establish income-generating projects like public transport services, farming and construction, among many others.

According to the Regional Development Funds Regulations Notice, 2015, the objective of the Fund is to eradicate poverty in each of the four regions of the kingdom by initiating infrastructure development, viable commercial projects or schemes and medium to large income generation projects. The regulations emphasise that emaSwati wishing to take advantage of these funds should apply only as groups. Many projects established through financial assistance from the RDF have raised the standard of living for many emaSwati and even provided employment opportunities for some community members.

That said, in the same week, Prince Lonkhokhela, Minister of Natural Resources and Energy had what was later described as a `productive meeting’ with investors from RENOVA, a group of companies from Russia. These potential investors were in Eswatini to discuss various projects like mining, power generation and iron ore smelting. Smelting of ore is one of the initial stages in the manufacturing of steel. The RENOVA Group expressed interest in investing in the country. It was also music to the ears of many emaSwati that government had committed over E1.2 billion towards fighting HIV and AIDS, TB and malaria in the next three years.

This was said by Prime Minister Russell Dlamini at the launch of the Eswatini Country Coordinating Mechanism, an event held in Ezulwini. This was at the same event that Dlamini revealed that the Global Fund had approved a grant of about E776 million for Eswatini to continue the fight against HIV. While government is grateful for this windfall, the public cannot be faulted for being sceptical, as it is a documented fact that monies allocated to the Ministry of Health for various interventions is mismanaged. It is this mismanagement that has given birth to a two-decade long shortage of medical drugs in all public health facilities.

In fact, a fortnight ago, the Global Fund expressed worry that there was no proper management at the Central Medical Stores (CMS).
The fund gave government an ultimatum to urgently overhaul the way the CMS operates or risk losing live-saving funding. 

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